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***The FEBRUARY 2018 VUD is now available.***

The only Cubans the DB has on 88.x are "Radio Portátil" (probably pop-up) stations. The callsign for these is CMBP and they operate with 251 watts (the main CMBP is 89.5 La Habana and finding further mentions of these is exceedingly difficult). The name alone suggests they do not operate regularly.

CMBV-10 Loma de la Cruz, Holgúin (2 kW from 270 m HAAT) is on 89.1 — it's the only non-portable station below 90 MHz in Cuba.

BTW I'm not sure if any Cuban TV station, analog *or* digital, would have enough of a signal to make it up there to SC. If their system used channels 2-6 like our ATSC, that would be different, as E skip could bring you a signal. But alas, 2-6 will not be used there.

I have been in communication with Eric that lives in Cd. Habana. He is a member of the WTFDA Forums and gets on the Forums when he is at work, generally on his lunch break. His family does NOT have internet because it is so expensive to have internet at home, in Cuba....or, pay $2.00 per hour at the internet cafe - sounds cheap to us but is really very expensive to the Cuban wage. (And on a side note to that, the internet cafe's have to see the user's ID card (drivers license or official ID card) and that is linked to the user account. They (Cuba) can track the user's internet activity and if they see a lot of tracking to US websites, they can cut their internet use off.)

Anyway, Eric and I PM each other through the Forums, very similar to emails. He has offered to help me get a couple DTMB boxes and get them sent to me. He has a friend from the US that goes to Cuba periodically and he said he will give the boxes to his friend. His friend will get them shipped to me when he returns to the US. So I am waiting on word of the status of available DTMB STB's and also the latest news on progress with DTV in Cd. Habana. He is also suppose to let me know about getting money to his friend. I want to get one box for CD and one for Ryan. Not sure if any other dxers in the southern states would be interested in trying to get Cuban DTV stations.

I don't believe it is illegal to purchase a DTMB set-top-box from a retailer in Cuba. The set-top-box is a receiving only device that does not
require a license to watch and/or to record over-the-air signals.

As far as I know in this point in time, DTMB in Cuba are only broadcasting on band III (UHF). The plan is to put one DTV transmitter in each
capital province with up to eight standard definition channels.

Band I (VHF-Low) is not being used at this time because of the active analog transmitters in eight zones. Once the analog TV blackout occurs
in 2021. Then the government could put DTV on this band because UHF is proving difficult in certain provincial capitals due to tall buildings and
high environmental signal-to-noise interference from other urban wireless services.

With the visit of former President Obama to Cuba in 2014 & 2015, there were some bi-lateral US travel & business rules that took effect in January 2015. One of them is a US traveler to Cuba can return with up to $400 worth of Cuban merchandise, which doesn't include the limit of $100 for Cuban cigars and rum. SO CD and Ryan could technically, board a plane to Cd. Habana for a weekend, buy up to $400 each of DTMB STB's, and bring them back to the US. THEN they could rip the rest of us off with an outrageous price for the extra STB's they bought. Obviously they would keep one or two of them for themselves.